Nollywood's Vision 2020

iRokotv could become a billion dollar company by 2020
--Jason Njoku, CEO iRokotv

Canal+ and Netflix Eye Nollywood Opportunities

(By Will McBain) – Canal+ and Netflix Eye Nollywood Opportunities

Increased foreign investment in the wake of the purchase of a Nollywood studio by Canal+ could be a game-changer for Nigeria’s already thriving film industry. Will McBain looks at the prospects for a sector targeted to make $1bn in export revenue by 2020.

Nollywood has begun the biggest financial makeover in its history with this summer’s acquisition of Lagos-based production house ROK film studios by French media giant Canal+.

The studio was bought from Africa’s largest subscription-based video-on-demand company IROKOtv, whose founder Jason Njoku called the sale the “largest media deal in West African history”. Actress and producer Mary Njoku – Jason Njoku’s wife – founded ROK studios and will stay on as director general under the Canal+ acquisition.

The Death of an Industry

(By Jason 'Igwe' Njoku) - The Death of an Industry 

In July 2011, as part of our series A due diligence, Tiger Global had McKinsey & Co conduct a study of Nollywood. The remit was:

1. Nollywood content popularity across Africa

2. Nollywood Industry Structure and Dynamics

- market size, growth, concentration and key trends

- content creator economics

3. Internet, broadband, payments and advertising trends across Africa.

They spoke with over a thousand people in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

Over the weekend, I re-read elements of the study, just to refresh my memory on all that had happened over the last 4.5 years. Let me go ahead and share some of those slides with you.

Nollywood, iROKOtv, and French-Speaking Africa

(By Jason 'Igwe' Njoku) - Expanding Iroko in French Speaking Africa (FSA) 

When Canal+ invested in Iroko, a bunch of people in the English speaking Africa world kinda scratched their heads. Canal who? Little did we know that Iroko had been distributing dubbed content across FSA since 2013.

In Nigeria, for the most part, French Speaking Africa never really comes up in casual conversations. Unless we are talking domestic staff (especially cooks) and going to Cotonu to buy imported cars, we, as a people, are so inward looking that we don’t really bother to remember that both Nigeria and Ghana are literally surrounded on all sides by French speaking countries. Granted they are all pretty small, but being ~180m people in Nigeria vs ~230m across FSA one can understand a degree of naval gazing.

Nollywood and Mrs Njoku: Content is King

Mary Njoku

(By Jason 'Igwe' Njoku) - Content is King. How I ended up working for Mrs Njoku. Part 1. 

So, ROK on DStv was one a few weeks ago. I thought it important to tell the story of how it came to be. How a new approach to movie making fundamentally returned Nollywood to its roots as a medium to tell our stories.

In 2011, when Mrs Njoku was still Miss Remmy, she told me that she would prefer, by 40, to end up behind the camera rather than in front of it. That was her dream. She always loved storytelling and felt that Alaba-led filmmaking was disconnected from the storytelling core which had popularised Nollywood. She had all these ideas but no-one would really listen. I was her boyfriend so I was obliged to. Everyone who knows me knows I am pretty much wrapped up in myself and I rarely bother about anyone else. So it pretty much went in one ear and out the next. Even though she had been in arguably the biggest hit of 2011, Blackberry Babes, the year was a dry period for movie making for Miss Remmy.

When IROKOtv Celebrated 6 Years

(By Jason 'Igwe' Njoku) - Man. This is a little strange. Very little drama in 2017. We’re IROKO. There is always a little drama lurking somewhere. Alas none this year. To be honest, I ended up spending 5 months of 2017 in London so that pretty much took the wind out of any dramatic things outside of introducing Nnenna, my daughter, into the world. Being a parent is special. When I wasn’t one I used to move around the world fucking fearless. Now, everyday, I’m just scared. Scared that they may fall ill (kids at nursery are always ill), scared that I may let them down (apparently no one told me there is no rule book to raising kids, you just hack it as you go along) and scared that you can’t pay school fees (Holy ghost fire this will never happen in Jesus’ name).

To be honest the most dramatic thing that happened to IROKOtv over the last 12 months has actually been the launch of ROK channels on DStv and SKY. On Tuesday, I was in Johannesburg, and two young Nigerian men blocked me at the fuel station (I drive myself). One of them recognised me and was trying to explain to the other who I was. You know.

You know. The husband of the woman, you know, Nollywood actress, Mrs Mary, who runs ROKTV.

See my life. Post wedding. It was a concerted multi-year campaign to migrate people calling her Mary Remmy, to simply Mrs Njoku. Now I am the husband of the woman who runs ROK. I guess I am just resigned to being the queen in this relationship. In her shadow forever. It’s okay.

iROKOtv Exists for Nollywood to Survive, iROKOtv Boss

Abi Ishola, Co-host of Culture Shock: Nigerians in America, spoke to Jason Njoku, the founder and CEO of iROKOtv, at the company's office in New York City. Jason speaks on why he founded iROKOtv, discusses the $8 million investment he received to expand iROKOtv, explains how the money will benefit his company and the entire Nollywood industry, and also gives advice to young entrepreneurs in search of investment deals. And just how much is iROKOtv worth? Analysts say $30 million. Find out what Jason says.